Thursday, May 18, 2017

New York City music teacher arrested for alleged sex trafficking of minors privateofficer.com

New York City NY May 18 2017 The founder of a New
York City music school for children was arrested this morning on federal
charges alleging he had sex with teen girls and tried to arrange sexual contact
with girls as young as 8 years old, authorities said. None of the alleged
victims referred to in the criminal complaint appear to be students of the
music teacher.

Federal agents with Homeland Security Investigations
showed up at the Queens home of Oliver Sohngen, owner of the Long Island City
Academy of Music, who faces an eight-count federal complaint alleging he
engaged in sex trafficking of a minor and other offenses, according to law
enforcement sources and the criminal complaint.

Sohngen, whose Facebook page says he is originally
from Germany and that he studied at Case Western Reserve University and the
Cleveland Institute of Music, allegedly used a pimp to arrange sexual encounters
with girls 8 to 17 years old.

The criminal complaint alleges he had sexual contact
with a 15-year-old girl and a 17-year-old girl and tried to purchase sexual
encounters with others ages 8 to 17.

“Sohngen appears to have exchanged text messages
with an individual for the purpose of purchasing commercial sex acts with minor
girls ranging in age from eight to seventeen,” Special Agent Miguel Collazo of
Homeland Security Investigations said in the complaint. “Moreover, on at least
two occasions, Sohngen engaged in various forms of sexual contact with 15- and
17-year-old girls, both times arranged” by the same individual.

Sometime between late 2015 and early 2016, the
complaint alleges, Sohngen was talking by phone to an undercover New York City
police officer pretending to be a 15-year-old girl. He allegedly tried to
arrange to meet her for “oral sex and other sexual contact.”

Investigators learned of Sohngen after the pimp he
is alleged to have contacted was arrested in November 2013, according to the
federal complaint. A search of the pimp’s phone allegedly revealed contact
information for Sohngen. The complaint also said that two teens identified
Sohngen as having paid to have sexual contact with them.

Sohngen is due to appear today in the U.S. District
Court in Manhattan for an initial hearing. It’s not immediately clear whether
he has a defense attorney representing him yet.